‘The Cruel Madness of Love’

Sex, Syphilis and Psychiatry in Scotland, 1880-1930
Erscheinungsjahr 2008
ISBN: 978-90-420-2463-2
Verlag: Brill | Rodopi

Buch, Englisch, Band 85, 285 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 230 mm, Gewicht: 635 g

Reihe: Clio Medica

Against a backdrop of contemporary social and sexual concerns, and potent fears surrounding the moral and physical ‘degeneration’ of late nineteenth and early twentieth-century society, ‘The Cruel Madness of Love’ explores a critical period in the developing relationship between syphilis and insanity.

General paralysis of the insane (GPI), the most commonly diagnosed of the neurosyphilitic disorders, has been devastating both in terms of its severity and incidence. Using the rich laboratory and asylum records of lowland Scotland as a case study, Gayle Davis examines the evolution of GPI as a disease category from a variety of perspectives: social, medical, and pathological.

Through exploring case notes and the impact of new diagnostic techniques and therapies, such as the Wassermann Test and Malarial Therapy, the reader gains a unique insight into both patients and practitioners. Significant insights are gained into the socio–sexual background and medical experience of patients, as well as the clinical ideas and judgmental behaviour of the practitioners confronting this disease.

‘The Cruel Madness of Love’ will be of interest to anyone wishing to explore the historical relationship between sexuality, morality and disease.

“It is not often that a book is as interesting as its title suggests, but Gayle Davis’s first monograph is a fine example. a thoroughly researched, engaging, thoughtful and ultimately important work of scholarship.”
Medical History, 54: 1 (January 2010), 139–140.

Fachgebiete

• Medizin | Veterinärmedizin Medizin | Public Health | Pharmazie | Zahnmedizin Medizin, Gesundheitswesen Geschichte der Medizin
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Mentalitäts- und Sozialgeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literaturwissenschaft
• Medizin | Veterinärmedizin Medizin | Public Health | Pharmazie | Zahnmedizin Medizinische Fachgebiete Psychiatrie, Sozialpsychiatrie, Suchttherapie
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Europäische Länder
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Europäische Geschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Abbreviations

List of Figures

List of Tables

List of Images

Acknowledgements



1 Introduction

2 Scottish Institutional Provision for the Insane

3 Clinical Diagnosis

4 The Impact of the Laboratory

5 Treatment

6 Aetiology and Social Epidemiology

7 Conclusions



Appendices

Sources and Select Bibliography

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Gayle Davis is a Wellcome Trust University Award Holder at the University of Edinburgh. She has published on various aspects of the social history of medicine and sexuality in twentieth-century Britain, and is undertaking a Wellcome-funded research project on the history of infertility in Scotland. She is reviews editor for History of Psychiatry.